Systems and methods for updating links between keywords associated with a trending topic

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are described herein for updating links between keywords associated with a trending topic. Control circuitry may identify a plurality of communications associated with a plurality of users, the plurality of communications being related to a topic. The communications may comprise, for example, emails, text messages, online social media posts, websites or portions of a website, or any other online communication. The control circuitry may determine whether the topic is trending and increase a strength of association between a first symbol associated with the topic and a second symbol associated with the topic such that when a search query is received that includes the first symbol, search results related to the second symbol have a higher probability of being returned.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/673,730, filed Mar. 30, 2015, which claims priority benefit under 35U.S.C. § 119(e) from U.S. provisional application No. 62/098,077, filedDec. 30, 2014, all of which are hereby incorporated by reference hereinin their entirety.

BACKGROUND

Media providers typically provide a search function to allow users tosearch for desirable media assets. In order to provide more accuratesearch results, an interactive media guidance application may maintain aknowledge graph that includes contextual links between symbols. Forexample, a media guidance application may analyze historical search dataand utilize a probabilistic classifier, such as a Naïve Bayes Classifierthat determines the statistical probability that certain symbols relateto a certain topic. In this manner, the media guidance application maybuild a database that identifies related topics and symbols that may beused to return relevant search results to a user search query.

With the advent of social media, topics often explode in popularity fora relatively short period of time. Such topics are typically referred toas “trending” or “viral” topics. The accuracy of search algorithms maybe improved by taking into account the “trending” status of topics andtheir related symbols.

SUMMARY

Systems and methods are described herein for updating links betweenkeywords associated with a trending topic. In particular, systems andmethods are described herein which may identify a trending topic,identify symbols that are related to the trending topic, and increase astrength of association between those symbols. As an illustrativeexample, the movie “Inception” may become a trending topic, as measuredby the number of “likes” it has received in social media networks. Themovie “Inception” may be related to the symbols “Leonardo DiCaprio” and“Joseph Gordon-Levitt,” two actors who star in the movie. Controlcircuitry may identify that “Inception” is trending and thereby increasethe strength of association between “Leonardo DiCaprio” and “JosephGordon-Levitt” such that when a user search query is received with“Leonardo DiCaprio,” search results that include “Joseph Gordon-Levitt”are returned with a higher probability.

In some aspects, control circuitry may identify a plurality ofcommunications associated with a plurality of users, the plurality ofcommunications being related to a topic. The communications maycomprise, for example, communications on an online social network, emailmessages, text messages, Internet communications, websites, mobileapplication communications, and/or communications received from athird-party data source. The control circuitry may determine whether thetopic is trending and increase a strength of association between a firstsymbol associated with the topic and a second symbol associated with thetopic such that when a search query is received that includes the firstsymbol, search results related to the second symbol have a higherprobability of being returned.

In some embodiments, the control circuitry may determine whether thetopic is trending by determining whether the plurality of communicationsrelated to the topic exceeds a threshold number of communications. Forinstance, the control circuitry may receive indications of a certainnumber of social media posts that relate to the topic, and if the numberof social media posts exceeds a threshold number, the control circuitrymay determine that the topic is trending. In some embodiments, thecontrol circuitry may determine whether the topic is trending bydetermining whether a rate at which the plurality of communications arecreated exceeds a threshold rate. For instance, the control circuitrymay receive indications (e.g., from a third-party data source) ofcreation times associated with the plurality of communications. Thecontrol circuitry may use the creation times to determine how quicklythe plurality of communications are being created. As an illustrativeexample, the control circuitry may track a number of social mediacommunications being created, such as a short online communication knownas a “Tweet” provided through social media provider Twitter. The controlcircuitry may determine the number of Tweets per minute that relate to acertain topic, based on the creation times of the Tweets.

In other embodiments, the control circuitry may receive an indication ofthe rate of creations. For example, the control circuitry may receive anindication from a third-party data source of the Tweets per minuterelating to a certain topic. The control circuitry may determine whetherthe rate of creation exceeds a threshold rate in order to determinewhether the topic is trending. As an extension of the above example, themovie “Inception” may be mentioned in 10 Tweets per hour before openingnight, but may be mentioned in 10,000 Tweets per hour on opening night.

The spike in Tweets created may indicate that “Inception” is explodingin popularity and should be considered “trending” in the public opinion.In some embodiments, the control circuitry may receive an indicationfrom a third-party data source that the topic is trending.

In some embodiments, the control circuitry may identify a first symboland a second symbol associated with the topic. In some embodiments, thecontrol circuitry may access a database that identifies the first symbolas being related to the second symbol. For instance, the controlcircuitry may access a knowledge graph that compiles contextualrelationships between symbols based on, for example, historical usersearch data. In some embodiments, the control circuitry may directlyaccess historical user search data in order to identify a first symboland a second symbol as associated with the topic. For instance, thecontrol circuitry may identify a plurality of prior search queriesassociated with the topic that contain at least one of the first symbolor the second symbol. If the number of prior search queries associatedwith the topic that contain at least one of the first or second symbolexceeds a threshold, then the control circuitry may determine that thetopic is related to the first or the second symbol. As an illustrativeexample, the control circuitry may analyze past user search queries toidentify that queries about the television show “Friends” often includesthe symbols “Jennifer Aniston” and “Joey Tribbiani.” The controlcircuitry may conclude based on these trends that the symbols “JenniferAniston” and “Joey Tribbiani” are related to the topic “Friends.”

In some embodiments, the control circuitry may increase the strength ofassociation between the first symbol and the second symbol based on anamount by which the plurality of communications exceeds the thresholdnumber of communications. As an illustrative example, the thresholdnumber of communications for a topic to be considered trending may beset at 10,000 communications. These communications may be any type ofonline communication, such as posts on a social network such asFacebook. Typically, social networks such as Facebook allow a pluralityof users to create posts about topics of their choosing. For a topicthat has 11,000 Facebook posts, the strength of association between thefirst symbol and the second symbol may be increased a relatively smallamount. For a topic that has 1,000,000 Facebook posts, the strength ofassociation between the first symbol and the second symbol may beincreased a relatively large amount. In this manner, the controlcircuitry may increase the strength of association between the firstsymbol and the second symbol based on by how much the plurality ofcommunications exceeds the threshold number. In some embodiments, thecontrol circuitry may access a graded scale or a lookup table in orderto determine how much to increase the strength of association based onthe amount by which the plurality of communications exceeds thethreshold number of communications.

In some embodiments, the control circuitry may increase the strength ofassociation between the first symbol and the second symbol based on therate at which the plurality of communications are created or based on anamount by which the rate at which the plurality of communications arecreated exceeds the threshold rate. For instance, the threshold rate fora trending topic may be set at 1,000 Tweets per hour. For a topic thatis trending at 1,100 Tweets per hour, the control circuitry may increasethe strength of association between the first and the second symbol arelatively small amount. For a topic that is trending at 1,000,000Tweets per hour, the control circuitry may increase the strength ofassociation between the first and the second symbol a relatively largeamount. In some embodiments, the control circuitry may access a gradedscale or a lookup table in order to determine how much to increase thestrength of association based on the rate of creation of the pluralityof communications.

In some embodiments, the control circuitry may further determine whetherthe topic is no longer trending and, in response to determining that thetopic is no longer trending, decrease the strength of associationbetween the first symbol and the second symbol. Topics typically do nottrend for long periods of time, and when topics start to losepopularity, it may be appropriate to decrease the strength ofassociation between its related keywords. As an illustrative example, anews story about the Super Bowl might receive a lot of public attentionduring the lead-up to the game and immediately after the game. However,after the game is played, the public attention may begin to wane. Inthis case, the strength of association of symbols associated with theSuper Bowl may be decreased in order to reflect the relative decrease inpopularity over time. In some embodiments, the control circuitry maydecrease the strength of association between the first symbol and thesecond symbol a predetermined amount after a set period of time. In thismanner, the strength of association may gradually decay over time. Insome embodiments, the control circuitry may determine whether theplurality of communications related to the topic falls below a thresholdnumber of communications or whether a rate at which the plurality ofcommunications are created falls below a threshold rate. In these cases,the topic may no longer be considered trending, and the controlcircuitry may decrease the strength of association. In some embodiments,the control circuitry may decrease the strength of association to anoriginal level. For example, the control circuitry may have increasedthe strength of association between the first symbol and the secondsymbol from a first strength of association to a second strength ofassociation. When the topic is no longer trending, the control circuitrymay then decrease the strength of association from the second strengthof association to the first strength of association.

It should be noted that the systems and/or methods described above maybe applied to, or used in accordance with, other systems, methods and/orapparatuses.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will beapparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencecharacters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative example of a display screen for use inaccessing media content in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 2 shows another illustrative example of a display screen usedaccess media content in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment device inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 5 shows an illustrative user search interface that provides a listof trending media assets in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for updating links betweenkeywords associated with a trending topic in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure; and

FIG. 7 is another flowchart of illustrative steps for updating linksbetween keywords associated with a trending topic in accordance withsome embodiments of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Systems and methods are described herein for updating links betweenkeywords associated with a trending topic. A “trending” topic is onethat has increased popularity for a certain period of time. Trendingtopics may be measured by a plurality of communications associated witha plurality of users, typically online communications. Control circuitrymay identify a trending topic, identify symbols that are related to thetrending topic, and increase a strength of association between thosesymbols. As used herein, “symbols” may refer to any keyword, phrase, orconcept that may relate to a topic. As an illustrative example, themovie “Inception” may become a trending topic, as measured by the numberof “likes” it has received in social media networks. The movie“Inception” may be related to the symbols “Leonardo DiCaprio” and“Joseph Gordon-Levitt,” two actors who star in the movie. Controlcircuitry may identify that “Inception” is trending and thereby increasethe strength of association between “Leonardo DiCaprio” and “JosephGordon-Levitt” such that when a user search query is received with“Leonardo DiCaprio,” search results that include “Joseph Gordon-Levitt”are returned with a higher probability.

In some aspects, control circuitry may identify a plurality ofcommunications associated with a plurality of users, the plurality ofcommunications being related to a topic. The communications maycomprise, for example, communications on an online social network, emailmessages, text messages, Internet communications, websites, mobileapplication communications, and/or communications received from athird-party data source. The control circuitry may determine whether thetopic is trending based on the communications and increase a strength ofassociation between a first symbol associated with the topic and asecond symbol associated with the topic such that when a search query isreceived that includes the first symbol, search results related to thesecond symbol have a higher probability of being returned.

In some embodiments, the control circuitry may determine whether thetopic is trending by determining whether the plurality of communicationsrelated to the topic exceeds a threshold number of communications. Forinstance, the control circuitry may receive indications of a certainnumber of social media posts that relate to the topic, and if the numberof social media posts exceeds a threshold number, the control circuitrymay determine that the topic is trending. In some embodiments, thecontrol circuitry may determine whether the topic is trending bydetermining whether a rate at which the plurality of communications arecreated exceeds a threshold rate. For instance, the control circuitrymay receive indications (e.g., from a third-party data source) ofcreation times associated with the plurality of communications. Thecontrol circuitry may use the creation times to determine how quicklythe plurality of communications are being created. As an illustrativeexample, the control circuitry may determine the number of Tweets perminute that relate to a certain topic, based on the creation times ofthe Tweets. In other embodiments, the control circuitry may receive anindication of the rate of creations. For example, the control circuitrymay receive an indication from a third-party data source of the Tweetsper minute relating to a certain topic. The control circuitry maydetermine whether the rate of creation exceeds a threshold rate in orderto determine whether the topic is trending. As an extension of the aboveexample, the movie “Inception” may be mentioned in 10 Tweets per hourbefore opening night, but may be mentioned in 10,000 Tweets per hour onopening night. The spike in Tweets created may indicate that “Inception”is exploding in popularity and should be considered “trending” in thepublic opinion. In some embodiments, the control circuitry may receivean indication from a third-party data source that the topic is trending.

In some embodiments, the control circuitry may identify a first symboland a second symbol associated with the topic. In some embodiments, thecontrol circuitry may access a database that identifies the first symbolas being related to the second symbol. For instance, the controlcircuitry may access a knowledge graph that compiles contextualrelationships between symbols based on, for example, historical usersearch data. Knowledge graphs and their features are described ingreater detail in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/501,504, filedSep. 30, 2014, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/500,309, filed Sep.29, 2014, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/448,308, filed Jul.31, 2014, which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in theirentireties.

In some embodiments, the control circuitry may increase the strength ofassociation between the first symbol and the second symbol based on anamount by which the plurality of communications exceeds the thresholdnumber of communications. As an illustrative example, the thresholdnumber of communications for a topic to be considered trending may beset at 10,000 posts on Facebook. The control circuitry may determine thenumber of communications about a certain topic by using any suitablemethod or combination of methods. For instance, each of the plurality ofcommunications may be associated with metadata that indicates the topicof the communication, and the control circuitry may track this metadatain order to determine the number of communications relating to aparticular topic. As an illustrative example, each of the plurality ofcommunications may be a Tweet that includes a text identifier called ahashtag (typically indicated by the symbol #). The control circuitry mayautomatically detect the “#” symbol and determine that the keyword orphrase after the “#” is the topic of the Tweet. In some embodiments, thecontrol circuitry may determine the topic of a communication by parsingthe communication for keywords and associating the detected keywordswith the topic.

In some embodiments, the control circuitry may further determine whetherthe topic is decreasing in popularity and/or whether the topic is nolonger trending. For instance, the control circuitry may detect that thenumber of communications relating to a particular topic being created isdecreasing over time. In response to determining a decrease inpopularity, the control circuitry may decrease the strength ofassociation between the first symbol and the second symbol. Topicstypically do not trend for long periods of time, and when a topic startsto lose popularity, it may be appropriate to decrease the strength ofassociation between its related keywords. As an illustrative example, anews story about the Super Bowl might receive a lot of public attentionduring the lead-up to the game and immediately after the game. However,after the game is played, the public attention may begin to wane. Inthis case, the strength of association of symbols associated with theSuper Bowl may be decreased in order to reflect the relative decrease inpopularity over time. In some embodiments, the control circuitry maydecrease the strength of association between the first symbol and thesecond symbol a predetermined amount after a set period of time. In thismanner, the strength of association may gradually decay over time. Insome embodiments, the control circuitry may determine whether theplurality of communications related to the topic falls below a thresholdnumber of communications or whether a rate at which the plurality ofcommunications are created falls below a threshold rate. In these cases,the topic may no longer be considered as decreasing in popularity or nolonger trending, and the control circuitry may decrease the strength ofassociation. In some embodiments, the control circuitry may dynamicallydecrease the strength of association an amount that is based on how muchthe topic decreased in popularity. For instance, the control circuitrymay decrease the strength of association a relatively small amount for asmall decrease in popularity (measured, e.g., by a small decrease in thenumber of communications created or by a small decrease in the rate ofcommunications created). Similarly, the control circuitry may decreasethe strength of association a relatively large amount for a largedecrease in popularity (measured, e.g., by a large decrease in thenumber of communications created or by a large decrease in the rate ofcommunications created). In some embodiments, the control circuitry mayfirst detect whether the number of communications created or rate ofcommunications created has exceeded a threshold before performing thistype of dynamic change based on the amount of decrease in popularity. Insome embodiments, the control circuitry may decrease the strength ofassociation to an original level. For example, the control circuitry mayhave increased the strength of association between the first symbol andthe second symbol from a first strength of association to a secondstrength of association. When the topic is no longer trending, thecontrol circuitry may then decrease the strength of association from thesecond strength of association to the first strength of association.

The amount of content available to users in any given content deliverysystem can be substantial. Consequently, many users desire a form ofmedia guidance through an interface that allows users to efficientlynavigate content selections and easily identify content that they maydesire. An application that provides such guidance is referred to hereinas an interactive media guidance application or, sometimes, a mediaguidance application or a guidance application.

Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms dependingon the content for which they provide guidance. One typical type ofmedia guidance application is an interactive television program guide.Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to aselectronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that,among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many typesof content or media assets. Interactive media guidance applications maygenerate graphical user interface screens that enable a user to navigateamong, locate and select content. As referred to herein, the terms“media asset” and “content” should be understood to mean anelectronically consumable user asset, such as television programming, aswell as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand(VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streaming content, downloadablecontent, Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content information,pictures, rotating images, text documents, playlists, websites,articles, books, electronic books, blogs, advertisements, chat sessions,social media, applications, games, and/or any other media or multimediaand/or combination of the same. Guidance applications also allow usersto navigate among and locate content. As referred to herein, the term“multimedia” should be understood to mean content that utilizes at leasttwo different content forms described above, for example, text, audio,images, video, or interactivity content forms. Content may be recorded,played, displayed or accessed by user equipment devices, but can also bepart of a live performance.

The media guidance application and/or any instructions for performingany of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded on computerreadable media. Computer readable media includes any media capable ofstoring data. The computer readable media may be transitory, including,but not limited to, propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals,or may be non-transitory including, but not limited to, volatile andnon-volatile computer memory or storage devices such as a hard disk,floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media cards, register memory, processorcaches, Random Access Memory (“RAM”), etc.

With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speedwireless networks, users are accessing media on user equipment deviceson which they traditionally did not. As referred to herein, the phrase“user equipment device,” “user equipment,” “user device,” “electronicdevice,” “electronic equipment,” “media equipment device,” or “mediadevice” should be understood to mean any device for accessing thecontent described above, such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-topbox, an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellitetelevision, a digital storage device, a digital media receiver (DMR), adigital media adapter (DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, aDVD recorder, a connected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, aBLU-RAY recorder, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tabletcomputer, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV), a PCmedia server, a PC media center, a hand-held computer, a stationarytelephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, aportable video player, a portable music player, a portable gamingmachine, a smart phone, or any other television equipment, computingequipment, or wireless device, and/or combination of the same. In someembodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facing screenand a rear facing screen, multiple front screens, or multiple angledscreens. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a frontfacing camera and/or a rear facing camera. On these user equipmentdevices, users may be able to navigate among and locate the same contentavailable through a television. Consequently, media guidance may beavailable on these devices, as well. The guidance provided may be forcontent available only through a television, for content available onlythrough one or more of other types of user equipment devices, or forcontent available both through a television and one or more of the othertypes of user equipment devices. The media guidance applications may beprovided as on-line applications (i.e., provided on a web-site), or asstand-alone applications or clients on user equipment devices. Variousdevices and platforms that may implement media guidance applications aredescribed in more detail below.

One of the functions of the media guidance application is to providemedia guidance data to users. As referred to herein, the phrase “mediaguidance data” or “guidance data” should be understood to mean any datarelated to content or data used in operating the guidance application.For example, the guidance data may include program information, guidanceapplication settings, user preferences, user profile information, medialistings, media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcastchannels, titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parentalcontrol ratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category information,actor information, logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos,etc.), media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D,etc.), advertisement information (e.g., text, images, media clips,etc.), on-demand information, blogs, websites, and any other type ofguidance data that is helpful for a user to navigate among and locatedesired content selections.

FIGS. 1-2 show illustrative display screens that may be used to providemedia guidance data and media assets. The display screens shown in FIGS.1-2 may be implemented on any suitable user equipment device orplatform. While the displays of FIGS. 1-2 are illustrated as full screendisplays, they may also be fully or partially overlaid over contentbeing displayed. A user may indicate a desire to access contentinformation by selecting a selectable option provided in a displayscreen (e.g., a menu option, a listings option, an icon, a hyperlink,etc.) or pressing a dedicated button (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remotecontrol or other user input interface or device. In response to theuser's indication, the media guidance application may provide a displayscreen with media guidance data organized in one of several ways, suchas by time and channel in a grid, by time, by channel, by source, bycontent type, by category (e.g., movies, sports, news, children, orother categories of programming), or other predefined, user-defined, orother organization criterion.

FIG. 1 shows illustrative grid program listings display 100 arranged bytime and channel that also enables access to different types of contentin a single display. Display 100 may include grid 102 with: (1) a columnof channel/content type identifiers 104, where each channel/content typeidentifier (which is a cell in the column) identifies a differentchannel or content type available; and (2) a row of time identifiers106, where each time identifier (which is a cell in the row) identifiesa time block of programming. Grid 102 also includes cells of programlistings, such as program listing 108, where each listing provides thetitle of the program provided on the listing's associated channel andtime. With a user input device, a user can select program listings bymoving highlight region 110. Information relating to the program listingselected by highlight region 110 may be provided in program informationregion 112. Region 112 may include, for example, the program title, theprogram description, the time the program is provided (if applicable),the channel the program is on (if applicable), the program's rating, andother desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., contentthat is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipmentdevices at a predetermined time and is provided according to aschedule), the media guidance application also provides access tonon-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipmentdevice at any time and is not provided according to a schedule).Non-linear programming may include content from different contentsources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g.,streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content(e.g., content stored on any user equipment device described above orother storage device), or other time-independent content. On-demandcontent may include movies or any other content provided by a particularcontent provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “CurbYour Enthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time WarnerCompany L. P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM aretrademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content mayinclude web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or contentavailable on-demand as streaming content or downloadable content throughan Internet web site or other Internet access (e.g. FTP).

Grid 102 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 114, recorded content listing 116, andInternet content listing 118. A display combining media guidance datafor content from different types of content sources is sometimesreferred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of thetypes of media guidance data that may be displayed that are differentthan display 100 may be based on user selection or guidance applicationdefinition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings,only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings114, 116, and 118 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayedin grid 102 to indicate that selection of these listings may provideaccess to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings,or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings forthese content types may be included directly in grid 102. Additionalmedia guidance data may be displayed in response to the user selectingone of the navigational icons 120. (Pressing an arrow key on a userinput device may affect the display in a similar manner as selectingnavigational icons 120.)

Display 100 may also include video region 122, advertisement 124, andoptions region 126. Video region 122 may allow the user to view and/orpreview programs that are currently available, will be available, orwere available to the user. The content of video region 122 maycorrespond to, or be independent from, one of the listings displayed ingrid 102. Grid displays including a video region are sometimes referredto as picture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and theirfunctionalities are described in greater detail in Satterfield et al.U.S. Pat. No. 6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat.No. 6,239,794, issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated byreference herein in their entireties. PIG displays may be included inother media guidance application display screens of the embodimentsdescribed herein.

Advertisement 124 may provide an advertisement for content that,depending on a viewer's access rights (e.g., for subscriptionprogramming), is currently available for viewing, will be available forviewing in the future, or may never become available for viewing, andmay correspond to or be unrelated to one or more of the content listingsin grid 102. Advertisement 124 may also be for products or servicesrelated or unrelated to the content displayed in grid 102. Advertisement124 may be selectable and provide further information about content,provide information about a product or a service, enable purchasing ofcontent, a product, or a service, provide content relating to theadvertisement, etc. Advertisement 124 may be targeted based on a user'sprofile/preferences, monitored user activity, the type of displayprovided, or on other suitable targeted advertisement bases.

While advertisement 124 is shown as rectangular or banner shaped,advertisements may be provided in any suitable size, shape, and locationin a guidance application display. For example, advertisement 124 may beprovided as a rectangular shape that is horizontally adjacent to grid102. This is sometimes referred to as a panel advertisement. Inaddition, advertisements may be overlaid over content or a guidanceapplication display or embedded within a display. Advertisements mayalso include text, images, rotating images, video clips, or other typesof content described above. Advertisements may be stored in a userequipment device having a guidance application, in a database connectedto the user equipment, in a remote location (including streaming mediaservers), or on other storage means, or a combination of theselocations. Providing advertisements in a media guidance application isdiscussed in greater detail in, for example, Knudson et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2003/0110499, filed Jan. 17, 2003; Ward, IIIet al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,756,997, issued Jun. 29, 2004; and Schein et al.U.S. Pat. No. 6,388,714, issued May 14, 2002, which are herebyincorporated by reference herein in their entireties. It will beappreciated that advertisements may be included in other media guidanceapplication display screens of the embodiments described herein.

Options region 126 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 126 may be part of display 100 (andother display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user byselecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignablebutton on a user input device. The selectable options within optionsregion 126 may concern features related to program listings in grid 102or may include options available from a main menu display. Featuresrelated to program listings may include searching for other air times orways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling seriesrecording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite,purchasing a program, or other features. Options available from a mainmenu display may include search options, VOD options, parental controloptions, Internet options, cloud-based options, device synchronizationoptions, second screen device options, options to access various typesof media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to a premiumservice, options to edit a user's profile, options to access a browseoverlay, or other options.

The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user'spreferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user tocustomize displays and features to create a personalized “experience”with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may becreated by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by themedia guidance application monitoring user activity to determine varioususer preferences. Users may access their personalized guidanceapplication by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to theguidance application. Customization of the media guidance applicationmay be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations mayinclude varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays,font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g.,only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channelsbased on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display ofchannels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g.,recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality,etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internetcontent (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail,electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desiredcustomizations.

The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia guidance application may, for example, monitor the content theuser accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with theguidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application mayobtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to aparticular user (e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the useraccesses, such as www.allrovi.com, from other media guidanceapplications the user accesses, from other interactive applications theuser accesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.),and/or obtain information about the user from other sources that themedia guidance application may access. As a result, a user can beprovided with a unified guidance application experience across theuser's different user equipment devices. This type of user experience isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 4. Additionalpersonalized media guidance application features are described ingreater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No.7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown inFIG. 2. Video mosaic display 200 includes selectable options 202 forcontent information organized based on content type, genre, and/or otherorganization criterion. In display 200, television listings option 204is selected, thus providing listings 206, 208, 210, and 212 as broadcastprogram listings. In display 200 the listings may provide graphicalimages including cover art, still images from the content, video clippreviews, live video from the content, or other types of content thatindicate to a user the content being described by the media guidancedata in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also beaccompanied by text to provide further information about the contentassociated with the listing. For example, listing 208 may include morethan one portion, including media portion 214 and text portion 216.Media portion 214 and/or text portion 216 may be selectable to viewcontent in full-screen or to view information related to the contentdisplayed in media portion 214 (e.g., to view listings for the channelthat the video is displayed on).

The listings in display 200 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 206 islarger than listings 208, 210, and 212), but if desired, all thelistings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes orgraphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user orto emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider orbased on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphicallyaccentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Dec. 29, 2005,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Users may access content and the media guidance application (and itsdisplay screens described above and below) from one or more of theiruser equipment devices. FIG. 3 shows a generalized embodiment ofillustrative user equipment device 300. More specific implementations ofuser equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG. 4.User equipment device 300 may receive content and data via input/output(hereinafter “I/O”) path 302. I/O path 302 may provide content (e.g.,broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internet content, contentavailable over a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN),and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 304, which includesprocessing circuitry 306 and storage 308. Control circuitry 304 may beused to send and receive commands, requests, and other suitable datausing I/O path 302. I/O path 302 may connect control circuitry 304 (andspecifically processing circuitry 306) to one or more communicationspaths (described below). I/O functions may be provided by one or more ofthese communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 3 toavoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Control circuitry 304 may be based on any suitable processing circuitrysuch as processing circuitry 306. As referred to herein, processingcircuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments,processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separateprocessors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same typeof processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multipledifferent processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Corei7 processor). In some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 executesinstructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e.,storage 308). Specifically, control circuitry 304 may be instructed bythe media guidance application to perform the functions discussed aboveand below. For example, the media guidance application may provideinstructions to control circuitry 304 to generate the media guidancedisplays. In some implementations, any action performed by controlcircuitry 304 may be based on instructions received from the mediaguidance application.

In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 304 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidanceapplication server or other networks or servers. The instructions forcarrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on theguidance application server. Communications circuitry may include acable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card,or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or anyother suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involvethe Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths(which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 4). Inaddition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enablespeer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communicationof user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (describedin more detail below).

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 308 thatis part of control circuitry 304. As referred to herein, the phrase“electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood tomean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, orfirmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives,optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders,digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal videorecorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gamingconsoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storagedevices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 308 may be used tostore various types of content described herein as well as mediaguidance data described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used(e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-basedstorage, described in relation to FIG. 4, may be used to supplementstorage 308 or instead of storage 308.

Control circuitry 304 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 304 may also include scaler circuitry for upconvertingand downconverting content into the preferred output format of the userequipment 300. Circuitry 304 may also include digital-to-analogconverter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry forconverting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may be used by the user equipment device to receive and todisplay, to play, or to record content. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. The circuitrydescribed herein, including for example, the tuning, video generating,encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, and analog/digitalcircuitry, may be implemented using software running on one or moregeneral purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may beprovided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch and recordfunctions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tuner recording,etc.). If storage 308 is provided as a separate device from userequipment 300, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multipletuners) may be associated with storage 308.

A user may send instructions to control circuitry 304 using user inputinterface 310. User input interface 310 may be any suitable userinterface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard,touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognitioninterface, or other user input interfaces. Display 312 may be providedas a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of userequipment device 300. For example, display 312 may be a touchscreen ortouch-sensitive display. In such circumstances, user input interface 312may be integrated with or combined with display 312. Display 312 may beone or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display (LCD)for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low temperature polysilicon display, electronic ink display, electrophoretic display, activematrix display, electro-wetting display, electrofluidic display, cathoderay tube display, light-emitting diode display, electroluminescentdisplay, plasma display panel, high-performance addressing display,thin-film transistor display, organic light-emitting diode display,surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), laser television,carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometric modulatordisplay, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visual images.In some embodiments, display 312 may be HDTV-capable. In someembodiments, display 312 may be a 3D display, and the interactive mediaguidance application and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. Avideo card or graphics card may generate the output to the display 312.The video card may offer various functions such as accelerated renderingof 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or theability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be anyprocessing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry304. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 304.Speakers 314 may be provided as integrated with other elements of userequipment device 300 or may be stand-alone units. The audio component ofvideos and other content displayed on display 312 may be played throughspeakers 314. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributed to areceiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio via speakers314.

The guidance application may be implemented using any suitablearchitecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone application whollyimplemented on user equipment device 300. In such an approach,instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage308), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodicbasis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, orusing another suitable approach). Control circuitry 304 may retrieveinstructions of the application from storage 308 and process theinstructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based onthe processed instructions, control circuitry 304 may determine whataction to perform when input is received from input interface 310. Forexample, movement of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated bythe processed instructions when input interface 310 indicates that anup/down button was selected.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a client-serverbased application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented onuser equipment device 300 is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests toa server remote to the user equipment device 300. In one example of aclient-server based guidance application, control circuitry 304 runs aweb browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. Forexample, the remote server may store the instructions for theapplication in a storage device. The remote server may process thestored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 304) andgenerate the displays discussed above and below. The client device mayreceive the displays generated by the remote server and may display thecontent of the displays locally on equipment device 300. This way, theprocessing of the instructions is performed remotely by the server whilethe resulting displays are provided locally on equipment device 300.Equipment device 300 may receive inputs from the user via inputinterface 310 and transmit those inputs to the remote server forprocessing and generating the corresponding displays. For example,equipment device 300 may transmit a communication to the remote serverindicating that an up/down button was selected via input interface 310.The remote server may process instructions in accordance with that inputand generate a display of the application corresponding to the input(e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). The generated display isthen transmitted to equipment device 300 for presentation to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded andinterpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (runby control circuitry 304). In some embodiments, the guidance applicationmay be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received bycontrol circuitry 304 as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by auser agent running on control circuitry 304. For example, the guidanceapplication may be an EBIF application. In some embodiments, theguidance application may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files thatare received and run by a local virtual machine or other suitablemiddleware executed by control circuitry 304. In some of suchembodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital mediaencoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encodedand transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio andvideo packets of a program.

User equipment device 300 of FIG. 3 can be implemented in system 400 ofFIG. 4 as user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404,wireless user communications device 406, or any other type of userequipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portable gamingmachine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to hereincollectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may besubstantially similar to user equipment devices described above. Userequipment devices, on which a media guidance application may beimplemented, may function as a standalone device or may be part of anetwork of devices. Various network configurations of devices may beimplemented and are discussed in more detail below.

A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system featuresdescribed above in connection with FIG. 3 may not be classified solelyas user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, or awireless user communications device 406. For example, user televisionequipment 402 may, like some user computer equipment 404, beInternet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while usercomputer equipment 404 may, like some television equipment 402, includea tuner allowing for access to television programming. The mediaguidance application may have the same layout on various different typesof user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of theuser equipment. For example, on user computer equipment 404, theguidance application may be provided as a web site accessed by a webbrowser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled downfor wireless user communications devices 406.

In system 400, there is typically more than one of each type of userequipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 4 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize morethan one type of user equipment device and also more than one of eachtype of user equipment device.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user televisionequipment 402, user computer equipment 404, wireless user communicationsdevice 406) may be referred to as a “second screen device.” For example,a second screen device may supplement content presented on a first userequipment device. The content presented on the second screen device maybe any suitable content that supplements the content presented on thefirst device. In some embodiments, the second screen device provides aninterface for adjusting settings and display preferences of the firstdevice. In some embodiments, the second screen device is configured forinteracting with other second screen devices or for interacting with asocial network. The second screen device can be located in the same roomas the first device, a different room from the first device but in thesame house or building, or in a different building from the firstdevice.

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent mediaguidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices.Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and programfavorites, programming preferences that the guidance applicationutilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, andother desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channelas a favorite on, for example, the web site www.allrovi.com on theirpersonal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as afavorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipmentand user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, ifdesired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can changethe guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless ofwhether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device.In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user,as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network 414.Namely, user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, andwireless user communications device 406 are coupled to communicationsnetwork 414 via communications paths 408, 410, and 412, respectively.Communications network 414 may be one or more networks including theInternet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or data network (e.g., a4G or LTE network), cable network, public switched telephone network, orother types of communications network or combinations of communicationsnetworks. Paths 408, 410, and 412 may separately or together include oneor more communications paths, such as, a satellite path, a fiber-opticpath, a cable path, a path that supports Internet communications (e.g.,IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other wirelesssignals), or any other suitable wired or wireless communications path orcombination of such paths. Path 412 is drawn with dotted lines toindicate that in the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 4 it is awireless path and paths 408 and 410 are drawn as solid lines to indicatethey are wired paths (although these paths may be wireless paths, ifdesired). Communications with the user equipment devices may be providedby one or more of these communications paths, but are shown as a singlepath in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipmentdevices, these devices may communicate directly with each other viacommunication paths, such as those described above in connection withpaths 408, 410, and 412, as well as other short-range point-to-pointcommunication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wirelesspaths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or othershort-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is acertification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipmentdevices may also communicate with each other directly through anindirect path via communications network 414.

System 400 includes content source 416 and media guidance data source418 coupled to communications network 414 via communication paths 420and 422, respectively. Paths 420 and 422 may include any of thecommunication paths described above in connection with paths 408, 410,and 412. Communications with the content source 416 and media guidancedata source 418 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths,but are shown as a single path in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of contentsource 416 and media guidance data source 418, but only one of each isshown in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The differenttypes of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, contentsource 416 and media guidance data source 418 may be integrated as onesource device. Although communications between sources 416 and 418 withuser equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 are shown as throughcommunications network 414, in some embodiments, sources 416 and 418 maycommunicate directly with user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 viacommunication paths (not shown) such as those described above inconnection with paths 408, 410, and 412.

Content source 416 may include one or more types of content distributionequipment including a television distribution facility, cable systemheadend, satellite distribution facility, programming sources (e.g.,television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediatedistribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers, on-demandmedia servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademark owned bythe National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by theAmerican Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademark owned by theHome Box Office, Inc. Content source 416 may be the originator ofcontent (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcast provider, etc.) ormay not be the originator of content (e.g., an on-demand contentprovider, an Internet provider of content of broadcast programs fordownloading, etc.). Content source 416 may include cable sources,satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers,over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Contentsource 416 may also include a remote media server used to storedifferent types of content (including video content selected by a user),in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems andmethods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely storedcontent to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connectionwith Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, whichis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 418 may provide media guidance data, such asthe media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may beprovided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach. Insome embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-aloneinteractive television program guide that receives program guide datavia a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Programschedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the userequipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-band digitalsignal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitabledata transmission technique. Program schedule data and other mediaguidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog ordigital television channels.

In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 418may be provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. Forexample, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from aserver, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipmentdevice. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing onthe user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 418 to obtainguidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of dateor when the user equipment device receives a request from the user toreceive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment withany suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specifiedperiod of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to arequest from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 418 mayprovide user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 the media guidanceapplication itself or software updates for the media guidanceapplication.

In some embodiments, the media guidance data source 418 may comprise adatabase that maintains relationships between symbols. For example, themedia guidance data source 418 may be a knowledge graph that containscontextual links between symbols. Control circuitry 304 may accessguidance data source 418 in order to identify a first and a secondsymbol associated with a particular topic. In some embodiments, thecontrol circuitry 304 may have direct write access to the database suchthat control circuitry 304 may increase or decrease a strength ofassociation between a first symbol and a second symbol. In someembodiments, the control circuitry 304 may send requests to the mediaguidance data source 418 in order to increase or decrease a strength ofassociation between a first symbol and a second symbol.

In some embodiments, media guidance data source 418 may comprise asocial media network server that maintains communications for an onlinesocial media network. For example, media guidance data source 418 may bea Twitter server that receives, stores, and transmits Tweets from aplurality of Twitter users. In such embodiments, the media guidance datasource 418 may receive a request from control circuitry 304 to providestatistical data on Tweets relating to a certain topic. For example, thecontrol circuitry 304 may request the number of Tweets about a certaintopic, the rate at which such Tweets are created, and/or the creationtimes of the Tweets about the topic. The control circuitry 304 may alsorequest from the media guidance data source 418 a list of one or moretrending topics.

In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include viewer data.For example, the viewer data may include current and/or historical useractivity information (e.g., what content the user typically watches,what times of day the user watches content, whether the user interactswith a social network, at what times the user interacts with a socialnetwork to post information, what types of content the user typicallywatches (e.g., pay TV or free TV), mood, brain activity information,etc.). The media guidance data may also include subscription data. Forexample, the subscription data may identify to which sources or servicesa given user subscribes and/or to which sources or services the givenuser has previously subscribed but later terminated access (e.g.,whether the user subscribes to premium channels, whether the user hasadded a premium level of services, whether the user has increasedInternet speed). In some embodiments, the viewer data and/or thesubscription data may identify patterns of a given user for a period ofmore than one year. The media guidance data may include a model (e.g., asurvivor model) used for generating a score that indicates a likelihooda given user will terminate access to a service/source. For example, themedia guidance application may process the viewer data with thesubscription data using the model to generate a value or score thatindicates a likelihood of whether the given user will terminate accessto a particular service or source. In particular, a higher score mayindicate a higher level of confidence that the user will terminateaccess to a particular service or source. Based on the score, the mediaguidance application may generate promotions and advertisements thatentice the user to keep the particular service or source indicated bythe score as one to which the user will likely terminate access.

Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-aloneapplications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, themedia guidance application may be implemented as software or a set ofexecutable instructions which may be stored in storage 308, and executedby control circuitry 304 of a user equipment device 300. In someembodiments, media guidance applications may be client-serverapplications where only a client application resides on the userequipment device, and server application resides on a remote server. Forexample, media guidance applications may be implemented partially as aclient application on control circuitry 304 of user equipment device 300and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g., mediaguidance data source 418) running on control circuitry of the remoteserver. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server (such asmedia guidance data source 418), the media guidance application mayinstruct the control circuitry to generate the guidance applicationdisplays and transmit the generated displays to the user equipmentdevices. The server application may instruct the control circuitry ofthe media guidance data source 418 to transmit data for storage on theuser equipment. The client application may instruct control circuitry ofthe receiving user equipment to generate the guidance applicationdisplays.

Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices402, 404, and 406 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT contentdelivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any userequipment device described above, to receive content that is transferredover the Internet, including any content described above, in addition tocontent received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content isdelivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet serviceprovider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP maynot be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, orredistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets providedby the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers includeYOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IPpackets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is atrademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu,LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively providemedia guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or mediaguidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute media guidanceapplications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications),or the content can be displayed by media guidance applications stored onthe user equipment device.

Media guidance system 400 is intended to illustrate a number ofapproaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devicesand sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each otherfor the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. Theembodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset ofthese approaches, or in a system employing other approaches fordelivering content and providing media guidance. The following fourapproaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example ofFIG. 4.

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each otherwithin a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with eachother directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemesdescribed above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similardevice provided on a home network, or via communications network 414.Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate differentuser equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may bedesirable for various media guidance information or settings to becommunicated between the different user equipment devices. For example,it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media guidanceapplication settings on different user equipment devices within a homenetwork, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/179,410, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types ofuser equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with eachother to transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content fromuser computer equipment to a portable video player or portable musicplayer.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment bywhich they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, someusers may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobiledevices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidanceapplication implemented on a remote device. For example, users mayaccess an online media guidance application on a website via a personalcomputer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA orweb-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g.,recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidanceapplication to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guidemay control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with amedia guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Varioussystems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where theuser equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, isdiscussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issuedOct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outsidea home can use their media guidance application to communicate directlywith content source 416 to access content. Specifically, within a home,users of user television equipment 402 and user computer equipment 404may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locatedesirable content. Users may also access the media guidance applicationoutside of the home using wireless user communications devices 406 tonavigate among and locate desirable content.

In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloudcomputing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computingenvironment, various types of computing services for content sharing,storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networkingsites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing andstorage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloudcan include a collection of server computing devices, which may belocated centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-basedservices to various types of users and devices connected via a networksuch as the Internet via communications network 414. These cloudresources may include one or more content sources 416 and one or moremedia guidance data sources 418. In addition or in the alternative, theremote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such asuser television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, and wirelessuser communications device 406. For example, the other user equipmentdevices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or a streamedvideo. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operate in apeer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, contentsharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well asaccess to any content described above, for user equipment devices.Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing serviceproviders, or through other providers of online services. For example,the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, acontent sharing site, a social networking site, or other services viawhich user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others onconnected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipmentdevice to store content to the cloud and to receive content from thecloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-storedcontent.

A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders,digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, andhandheld computing devices, to record content. The user can uploadcontent to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, forexample, from user computer equipment 404 or wireless usercommunications device 406 having content capture feature. Alternatively,the user can first transfer the content to a user equipment device, suchas user computer equipment 404. The user equipment device storing thecontent uploads the content to the cloud using a data transmissionservice on communications network 414. In some embodiments, the userequipment device itself is a cloud resource, and other user equipmentdevices can access the content directly from the user equipment deviceon which the user stored the content.

Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, forexample, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktopapplication, a mobile application, and/or any combination of accessapplications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloudclient that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or theuser equipment device may have some functionality without access tocloud resources. For example, some applications running on the userequipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications deliveredas a service over the Internet, while other applications may be storedand run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user devicemay receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. Forexample, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource whiledownloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device candownload content from multiple cloud resources for more efficientdownloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloudresources for processing operations such as the processing operationsperformed by processing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 shows an illustrative user search interface 500 that provides alist of trending media assets in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure. The user search interface 500 includes search region 502,search bar 504, keyboard 506, trending region 508, media asset listings510, 516, and 520, trending icons 512, 518, and 522, and trendingstatistic 514. User search interface 500 may be implemented on anysuitable user equipment, such as any one of user equipment 402, 404, or406 depicted in FIG. 4. The user search interface 500 may be displayedon any suitable display, such as display 312 depicted in FIG. 3, andaudio components of user search interface 500, if any, may be producedby any suitable audio device, such as speakers 314. The user searchinterface may also detect user input through detection module 316, whichmay include both visual sensors to detect physical gestures and audiosensors, such as a microphone, to detect audio/speech inputs.

In some embodiments, control circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 304,FIG. 3) may provide user search interface 500 as part of an interactivemedia guidance application. Search region 502 may provide a typicalsearch bar 504 and keyboard 506 that allow a user to input one or moresearch terms into search bar 504, for example, using user inputinterface 310.

The control circuitry 304 may also provide trending region 508 thatprovides a list of trending media assets. The control circuitry 304 mayprovide the list of trending media assets 510, 516, and 520 at anysuitable time, such as prior to the user entering any search terms,while the user is entering search terms, or after a user has entered allsearch terms and initiated a search. In embodiments where the controlcircuitry 304 provides the list of trending media assets 510, 516, and520 prior to the user entering any search terms, the list of trendingmedia assets 510, 516, and 520 may represent the currently trendingmedia assets. In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may rank thelist of trending media assets 510, 516, and 520 according to how muchthe media assets are trending. In some embodiments, control circuitry304 may rank the list of trending media assets 510, 516, and 520according to another measure of popularity, such as critic rating, userrating/feedback, how many users are currently watching, how many usersrecorded, how many users set reminders to watch the media asset, or anycombination thereof. In some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 mayrank the list of trending media assets 510, 516, and 520 according tosimilarity to a user preference profile. For example, the controlcircuitry 304 may compare user preferences stored in a profile (e.g., atstorage 308 or media guidance data source 418) to characteristicsassociated with the media assets in order to determine which mediaassets most closely match the user's preferences.

In some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 may provide list oftrending media assets 510, 516, and 520 while the user is enteringsearch terms into search bar 504, such that the list of trending mediaassets 510, 516, and 520 is dynamically populated based onpartially-entered search queries. In these embodiments, controlcircuitry 304 may populate the list of trending media assets 510, 516,and 520 with media assets 510, 516, and 520 that are related to theuser's entered search terms. For example, the list of media assets 510,516, and 520 may correspond to media assets that at least partiallymatch the user's search criteria. In some embodiments, the controlcircuitry 304 may dynamically change the list of trending media assets510, 516, and 520 as the user enters or deletes search terms. In someembodiments, the control circuitry 304 may update the list of trendingmedia assets 510, 516, and 520 in real-time as updated trendingstatistics, such as updated information on trending statistic 514, arereceived (e.g., from storage 308 or from media guidance data source 418through communications network 414). With regard to trending region 508,while the term “list” is used herein to describe media assets 510, 516,and 520, it will be understood that the media assets 510, 516, and 520are provided in a list as an illustrative example only, and that themedia assets 510, 516, and 520 may be presented in any other suitablemanner.

In some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 may identify a pluralityof communications associated with a plurality of users (e.g., by way ofuser input interface 310), the plurality of communications being relatedto a topic. The plurality of users may be connected through a network,such as communication network 414 depicted in FIG. 4. In someembodiments, the communication network 414 may comprise a local network,such as a local area network (LAN), while in other embodiments, thecommunications network 414 may comprise the Internet. In someembodiments, the control circuitry 304 may directly receive theplurality of communications from the plurality of users (e.g., throughuser input interface 310). For instance, a media provider may receiveuser comments or feedback regarding certain media assets (e.g., throughcommunications network 414). In some embodiments, the control circuitry304 may receive indications of the plurality of communications from athird-party data source, such as media content source 416 or mediaguidance data source 418, both depicted in FIG. 4. For instance, thecontrol circuitry 304 may query a social network server for informationregarding user communications related to a particular topic. The controlcircuitry 304 may also query the third-party data source for indicationsof creation times and/or a rate of creation for the plurality ofcommunications related to the topic. For example, as depicted in FIG. 5,the control circuitry 304 may receive information on the trendingstatistic 514, which is the number of Tweets per hour. In someembodiments, the control circuitry 304 may only receive trendingstatistic 514 for media assets that exceed a certain thresholdstatistic. In the illustrative example depicted in FIG. 5, the thresholdnumber of Tweets per hour in order for a media asset to be considered“trending” may be set at 500 Tweets per hour.

As depicted in FIG. 5, control circuitry 304 may sort the list oftrending media assets 510, 516, and 520 according to the trendingstatistic 514. In this example, the media assets 510, 516, and 520 arearranged in order of descending number of Tweets per hour. The controlcircuitry 304 may associate each of the media assets 510, 516, and 520with respective icons 512, 518, and 522. As depicted by icons 518 and522, the icons may indicate either an increase or a decrease in trendingstatus (i.e., trending statistic 514) through an up arrow or a downarrow. In the example depicted in FIG. 5, the control circuitry 304 mayassociate the media asset “Friends” with an increase in Tweets per hour(represented by the up arrow 518), indicating that it's increasing inpopularity, and may associate the media asset “Seinfeld” with a decreasein Tweets per hour (represented by the down arrow 522), indicating that“Seinfeld” is trending, but decreasing in popularity. In FIG. 5, thecontrol circuitry 304 may associate the media asset “American Idol” witha trending statistic 514 that has exceeded a second threshold,indicating that “American Idol” is currently extremely popular, asevidenced by the “HOT!” icon 512 and the up arrow.

In some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 may identify, for each ofthe trending media assets 510, 516, and 520, a first symbol and a secondsymbol associated with the topic. As discussed above, the controlcircuitry 304 may access a database, such as media content source 416 ormedia guidance data source 418, both depicted in FIG. 4, that identifiesthe first symbol as being related to the second symbol. In someembodiments, the database may store a knowledge graph that identifiescontextual relationships between symbols, including the first symbol andthe second symbol. In some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 maydetermine that the first and the second symbols are related to the topicby referring to historical user search data, either directly (e.g.,stored locally at storage 308) or indirectly (e.g., query a third-partydata source such as media guidance data source 418 for the historicaluser search data). From the historical user search data, the controlcircuitry 304 may identify a plurality of prior search queriesassociated with the topic that contain at least one of the first symbolor the second symbol. If the number of prior search queries associatedwith the topic that contain at least one of the first or second symbolexceeds a threshold, then the control circuitry 304 may determine thatthe topic is related to the first or the second symbol.

In some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 may increase the strengthof association between the first symbol and the second symbol based onthe trending statistic 514. For example, the control circuitry 304 mayincrease the strength of association for the first and second symbolsassociated with “American Idol” a relatively large amount based on itshigh number of Tweets per hour compared to the other media assets 516and 520. Similarly, the control circuitry 304 may increase the strengthof association for the first and second symbols associated with“Seinfeld” a relatively small amount based on its low number of Tweetsper hour compared to the other media assets 510 and 520. The controlcircuitry 304 may also increase the strength of association based on therate of creation of the plurality of communications associated with therespective topics. For instance, since “American Idol” is indicated as“Hot!”, i.e., increasing rapidly in popularity, the control circuitry304 may boost the strength of association for the first and secondsymbols associated with “American Idol” compared to the symbolsassociated with the other topics. The control circuitry 304 may storethe strength of association between the first and second symbols in anysuitable location, including locally at storage 308 depicted in FIG. 3or remotely at media content source 416, media guidance data source 418,or any of user equipment 402, 404, and 406 depicted in FIG. 4.

In some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 may determine whether thetopic is no longer trending or is decreasing in popularity. Forinstance, the control circuitry 304 may detect that the number ofcommunications relating to the particular topic being created isdecreasing over time. In some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 maydetermine whether the plurality of communications related to the topicfalls below a threshold number of communications or whether a rate atwhich the plurality of communications are created falls below athreshold rate. In these cases, the topic may no longer be considered asdecreasing in popularity or no longer trending, and the controlcircuitry 304 may decrease the strength of association between the firstsymbol and the second symbol associated with that topic. As anillustrative example, the control circuitry 304 may monitor trendingstatistic 514 and determine whether the trending statistic 514 dropsbelow a threshold value. If the trending statistic 514 does drop belowthe threshold value, then the control circuitry 304 may remove the mediaasset from the trending region 508 and decrease the strength ofassociation of symbols related to that topic. In some embodiments, thestrength of association is reverted back to an original value.

In some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 may detect when a topicis decreasing in popularity. Such topics may still be consideredtrending, such as the “Seinfeld” media asset 520 depicted in FIG. 5, butmay be decreasing in popularity. The control circuitry 304 may make thisdetermination by monitoring the rate of decrease of trending statistic514. The control circuitry 304 may decrease the strength of associationof the symbols relating to the topic accordingly. In some embodiments,the strength of association may be decreased based on the rate ofdecrease of trending statistic 514.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart 600 of illustrative steps for updating linksbetween keywords associated with a trending topic in accordance withsome embodiments of the disclosure. Flowchart 600 includes identifying aplurality of communications associated with a plurality of users, theplurality of communications being related to a topic at 602, determiningwhether a topic is trending based on the communications at 604,identifying a first symbol associated with the topic at 606, and inresponse to determining that the topic is trending, increasing astrength of association between the first symbol and a second symbolassociated with the topic such that when a search query is received thatincludes the first symbol, search results relating to the second symbolhave a higher probability of being returned at 608. It should be notedthat process 600 or any thereof could be performed on, or provided by,any of the devices or combination of devices shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. Forexample, process 600 may be executed by control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)as instructed by control circuitry implemented on user equipment 402,404, and/or 406 (FIG. 4). In addition, one or more steps of process 600may be incorporated into or combined with one or more steps of any otherprocess or embodiments.

At 602, the control circuitry 304 may identify a plurality ofcommunications associated with a plurality of users, the plurality ofcommunications being related to a topic. For example, the controlcircuitry 304 may receive an indication of the plurality ofcommunications from a remote data source, such as media guidance datasource 418, through communications network 414. The plurality ofcommunications may comprise one of: communications on an online socialnetwork, email messages, text messages, Internet communications,websites, mobile application communications, and/or communicationsreceived from a third-party data source (such as media guidance datasource 418 depicted in FIG. 4). The control circuitry 304 may alsoreceive the plurality of communications locally, such as from storage308. As discussed above, the control circuitry 304 may identify theplurality of communications in any number of ways including, but notlimited to, receiving the plurality of communications directly from aplurality of users (e.g., through user input interface 310) and/orquerying a third-party database (e.g., media guidance data source 418)for the plurality of communications or indications of the plurality ofcommunications.

At 604, the control circuitry 304 determines whether a topic is trendingbased on the communications. The control circuitry 304 may determinethat a topic is trending if the plurality of communications exceeds athreshold number of communications. The threshold may be set in advance,for example by a media provider or an end user, and may be stored atstorage 308 or media guidance data source 418. For example, an end usermay set the threshold by inputting the threshold through the user inputinterface 310, and in response, the control circuitry 304 may store thethreshold at either storage 308, media guidance data source 418, orboth. The control circuitry 304 may further retrieve the threshold fromeither storage 308 or media guidance data source 418. The controlcircuitry 304 may also determine whether a topic is trending if a rateat which the plurality of communications are created exceeds a thresholdrate. In some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 may receive from athird-party data source (e.g., media guidance data source 418) anindication that the topic is trending. For example, Facebook may send alist of trending media assets to the control circuitry 304.

At 606, the control circuitry 304 may identify a first symbol associatedwith the topic. The control circuitry 304 may identify the first symbolusing any technique discussed above or below. For instance, the controlcircuitry 304 may access a database (such as media guidance data source418) that maintains a knowledge base comprising contextual links betweensymbols to identify the first and second symbols related to the topic.The control circuitry 304 may also analyze historical user search querydata (e.g., stored at media guidance data source 418 and receivedthrough communications network 414) to calculate statistics on theprobability that the first symbol appears in search queries associatedwith the topic. If the probability exceeds a certain threshold, then thecontrol circuitry 304 may determine that the first symbol is associatedwith the topic.

At 608, the control circuitry 304 may increase a strength of associationbetween the first symbol and a second symbol associated with the topicsuch that when a search query is received that includes the firstsymbol, search results relating to the second symbol have a higherprobability of being returned. As discussed above, the strength ofassociation may be increased based on, for example, the number ofcommunications, by how much the plurality of communications exceeds athreshold number of communications, the rate of creation of theplurality of communications, or by how much the rate of creation of theplurality of communications exceeds a threshold rate.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 6 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 6 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should be noted that anyof the devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 3-5 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 6.

FIG. 7 depicts a flowchart 700 of illustrative steps for updating linksbetween keywords associated with a trending topic in accordance withsome embodiments of the disclosure. Flowchart 700 includes identifying aplurality of communications associated with a plurality of users on anonline social network, the plurality of communications related to atopic at 702, identifying creation times associated with each of theplurality of communications at 704, identifying a first symbolassociated with the topic and a second symbol associated with the topicat 706, determining whether the plurality of communications exceeds athreshold at 708, determining whether a rate of creation of theplurality of communications exceeds a threshold rate at 710, increasinga strength of association between the first symbol and the second symbolat 712, pausing for a period of time at 714, and optionally decreasingthe strength of association between the first symbol and the secondsymbol at 716. It should be noted that process 700 or any step thereofcould be performed on, or provided by, any of the devices or combinationof devices shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. For example, process 700 may beexecuted by control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3) as instructed by controlcircuitry 304 implemented on user equipment 402, 404, and/or 406 (FIG.4). In addition, one or more steps of process 700 may be incorporatedinto or combined with one or more steps of any other process orembodiments.

At 702, the control circuitry 304 may identify a plurality ofcommunications associated with a plurality of users on an online socialnetwork. The online social network may be maintained on a remote server,such as media content source 416 or media guidance data source 418, bothdepicted in FIG. 4. 702 may be substantially similar to 602 depicted inFIG. 6, except that the communications are associated with a pluralityof users on an online social network. Communications associated withusers on an online social network may be especially useful foridentifying trending topics because the number of communications on thesocial network about the topic and/or the rate at which suchcommunications are created may be a direct measure for determining howpopular a topic is with the general public. As discussed, above, thecontrol circuitry 304 may identify the plurality of communications inany suitable manner, including receiving the communications directly(e.g., through user input interface 310), retrieving the communicationsfrom local storage (e.g., from storage 308), or querying a third-partydata source (e.g., media guidance data source 418) for the plurality ofcommunications or indications of the plurality of communications.

At 704, the control circuitry 304 may identify creation times associatedwith each of the plurality of communications. For example, each of theplurality of communications may correspond to a post on the onlinesocial network at a particular point in time. The control circuitry 304may query a third-party data source (e.g., media guidance data source418) for indications of creation times and/or a rate of creation for theplurality of communications related to the topic. For example, asdepicted in FIG. 5, the control circuitry 304 may receive information onthe trending statistic 514, which is the number of Tweets per hour. Insome embodiments, the control circuitry 304 may only receive trendingstatistic 514 for media assets that exceed a certain thresholdstatistic. In the illustrative example depicted in FIG. 5, the thresholdnumber of Tweets per hour in order for a media asset to be considered“trending” may be set at 500 Tweets per hour.

At 706, the control circuitry 304 may identify a first symbol associatedwith the topic and a second symbol associated with the topic, in muchthe same manner as discussed above with respect to 606 depicted in FIG.6. As discussed above, the control circuitry 304 may access a database,such as media content source 416 or media guidance data source 418, bothdepicted in FIG. 4, that identifies the first symbol as being related tothe topic. In some embodiments, the database may store a knowledge graphthat identifies contextual relationships between symbols, includingrelationships between the first symbol, the second symbol, and thetopic. In some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 may determine thatthe first and the second symbols are related to the topic by referringto historical user search data, either directly (e.g., stored locally atstorage 308) or indirectly (e.g., query a third-party data source suchas media guidance data source 418 for the historical user search data).From the historical user search data, the control circuitry 304 mayidentify a plurality of prior search queries associated with the topicthat contain at least one of the first symbol or the second symbol. Theprior search queries may be stored either locally (e.g., on storage 308)or remotely (e.g., at media guidance data source 418). If the number ofprior search queries associated with the topic that contain at least oneof the first or second symbol exceeds a threshold, then the controlcircuitry 304 may determine that the topic is related to the first orthe second symbol.

At 708, the control circuitry 304 may determine whether the plurality ofcommunications exceeds a threshold number of communications. Thethreshold number of communications may be set in advance, for example bya media provider, service provider, or end user, and may be stored, forexample, at storage 308 or media guidance data source 418. In someembodiments, the threshold number of communications for determiningwhether a topic is trending may be changed by the end user using anysuitable user interface, such as user search interface 500 depicted inFIG. 5. If the plurality of communications exceeds the threshold numberof communications, then the topic may be deemed as “trending,” and thecontrol circuitry 304 may proceed to 712. If the plurality ofcommunications does not exceed the threshold number of communications,then the control circuitry 304 may proceed to 710 as a secondary testfor whether the topic is trending.

At 710, the control circuitry 304 may determine whether a rate ofcreation of the plurality of communications exceeds a threshold rate.For instance, as depicted in the illustrative example in FIG. 5,“American Idol” may be indicated as “Hot!”, i.e., increasing rapidly inpopularity, because the rate of creation of the plurality ofcommunications relating to “American Idol” has exceeded a thresholdrate. If the rate of creation of the plurality of communications exceedsthe threshold rate, then the control circuitry 304 may proceed to 712.If the rate of creation of the plurality of communications does notexceed the threshold rate, then the control circuitry 304 may proceed to716 and optionally decrease the strength of association between thefirst symbol and the second symbol. After 716, the control circuitry 304may return to 702 to restart the process 700.

At 712, the control circuitry 304 may increase a strength of associationbetween the first symbol and the second symbol. 712 may be substantiallysimilar to 608 discussed above in relation with FIG. 6. For example, thecontrol circuitry 304 may increase the strength of association betweenthe first symbol and the second symbol based on a trending statistic,such as trending statistic 514 depicted in FIG. 5. As discussed above inrelation to the illustrative example depicted in FIG. 5, the controlcircuitry 304 may increase the strength of association for the first andsecond symbols associated with “American Idol” a relatively large amountbased on its high number of Tweets per hour compared to the other mediaassets 516 and 520. Similarly, the control circuitry 304 may increasethe strength of association for the first and second symbols associatedwith “Seinfeld” a relatively small amount based on its low number ofTweets per hour compared to the other media assets 510 and 520. Thecontrol circuitry 304 may also increase the strength of associationbased on the rate of creation of the plurality of communicationsassociated with the respective topics. For instance, since “AmericanIdol” is indicated as “Hot!”, i.e., increasing rapidly in popularity,the control circuitry 304 may boost the strength of association for thefirst and second symbols associated with “American Idol” compared to thesymbols associated with the other topics. The control circuitry 304 maystore the strength of association between the first and second symbolsin any suitable location, including locally at storage 308 depicted inFIG. 3 or remotely at media content source 416, media guidance datasource 418, or any of user equipment 402, 404, and 406 depicted in FIG.4.

After increasing the strength of association at 712, the controlcircuitry 304 may pause for a period of time at 714 before returning to708. During the period of time, more communications relating to thetopic may have been created, and the control circuitry 304 may makeanother determination of whether the topic is trending via steps 708 and710. If the topic is trending upwards, then the control circuitry 304will continue through steps 708 and 710 as discussed above, and increasethe strength of association once again at 712. If the topic is trendingdownwards, then the control circuitry 304 will proceed to 716 andoptionally decrease the strength of association between the first symboland the second symbol. In this manner, the control circuitry 304 maygradually decrease the strength of association over time back to anoriginal strength of association.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 7 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 7 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should be noted that anyof the devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 3-5 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 7.

It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that methodsinvolved in the present invention may be embodied in a computer programproduct that includes a computer-usable and/or readable medium. Forexample, such a computer-usable medium may consist of a read-only memorydevice, such as a CD-ROM disk or conventional ROM devices, or a randomaccess memory, such as a hard drive device or a computer diskette,having a computer-readable program code stored thereon. It should alsobe understood that methods, techniques, and processes involved in thepresent invention may be executed using processing circuitry. Forinstance, updating links between keywords associated with a trendingtopic may be performed by processing circuitry, e.g., by processingcircuitry 306 of FIG. 3. The processing circuitry, for instance, may bea general purpose processor, a customized integrated circuit (e.g., anASIC), or a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) within user equipment300, media content source 416, or media guidance data source 418. Forexample, the strength of association between keywords as describedherein may be stored in, and retrieved from, storage 308 of FIG. 3, ormedia guidance data source 418 of FIG. 4. Furthermore, processingcircuitry, or a computer program, may update settings associated with auser, such as user profile preferences, updating the information storedwithin storage 308 of FIG. 3 or media guidance data source 418 of FIG.4.

The processes discussed above are intended to be illustrative and notlimiting. One skilled in the art would appreciate that the steps of theprocesses discussed herein may be omitted, modified, combined, and/orrearranged, and any additional steps may be performed without departingfrom the scope of the invention. More generally, the above disclosure ismeant to be exemplary and not limiting. Only the claims that follow aremeant to set bounds as to what the present invention includes.Furthermore, it should be noted that the features and limitationsdescribed in any one embodiment may be applied to any other embodimentherein, and flowcharts or examples relating to one embodiment may becombined with any other embodiment in a suitable manner, done indifferent orders, or done in parallel. In addition, the systems andmethods described herein may be performed in real time. It should alsobe noted, the systems and/or methods described above may be applied to,or used in accordance with, other systems and/or methods.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for updating associations between wordsin a search environment, the method comprising: identifying a pluralityof communications over a network connection during a first period oftime, wherein the plurality of communications are associated with atopic; determining whether a rate at which communications within theplurality of communications are created during the first period exceedsa predetermined rate; in response to determining that the rate at whichthe communications within the plurality of communications are createdexceeds the predetermined rate, increasing a stored strength ofassociation between a first keyword and a second keyword, wherein thefirst keyword and the second keyword are associated with the topic;receiving, subsequent to the first period of time, a first search querythat comprises the first keyword; in response to receiving the firstsearch query that comprises the first keyword: determining whether thestored strength of association between the first keyword and the secondkeyword exceeds a predetermined minimum strength; and in response todetermining that the stored strength of association exceeds thepredetermined minimum strength, identifying search results matching thefirst keyword and the second keyword; determining that a predeterminedamount of time has elapsed since increasing the stored strength ofassociation between the first keyword and the second keyword; inresponse to determining that the predetermined amount of time haselapsed since increasing the strength of association, decreasing thestored strength of association between the first keyword and the secondkeyword; receiving, after the predetermined time has elapsed, a secondsearch query that comprises the first keyword; and in response toreceiving the second search query that comprises the first keyword:determining whether the stored strength of association exceeds thepredetermined minimum strength; and in response to determining that thestored strength of association does not exceed the predetermined minimumstrength, searching for results matching the first keyword withoutsearching for results matching the second keyword.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising increasing the stored strength ofassociation, in response to determining that the rate at which thecommunications within the plurality of communications are createdexceeds the predetermined rate, from a first strength that is lower thanthe predetermined minimum strength to a second strength that is greaterthan the predetermined minimum strength.
 3. The method of claim 1,wherein the plurality of communications comprises one of: communicationson an online social network, email messages, text messages, Internetcommunications, websites, mobile application communications, and/orcommunications received from a third-party data source.
 4. The method ofclaim 1, wherein determining whether the rate at which thecommunications within the plurality of communications are createdexceeds the predetermined rate comprises, receiving, from a third partydata source, third party data indicating that the rate at which thecommunications within the plurality of communications are createdexceeds the predetermined rate.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein thecommunications in the plurality of communications are created by aplurality of users.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the strength ofassociation between the first keyword and the second keyword is storedin a knowledge graph.
 7. The method of claim 1, further comprising, inresponse to determining that the stored strength of association exceedsthe predetermined minimum strength, generating for display the searchresults matching the first keyword and the second keyword.
 8. A systemfor updating associations between words in a search environment, thesystem comprising control circuitry configured to: identify a pluralityof communications over a network connection during a first period oftime, wherein the plurality of communications are associated with atopic; determine whether a rate at which the communications within theplurality of communications are created during the first period exceedsa predetermined rate; in response to determining that the rate at whichthe communications within the plurality of communications are createdexceeds the predetermined rate, increase a stored strength ofassociation between a first keyword and a second keyword, wherein thefirst keyword and the second keyword are associated with the topic;receive, subsequent to the first period of time, a first search querythat comprises the first keyword; and in response to receiving the firstsearch query that comprises the first keyword: determine whether thestored strength of association between the first keyword and the secondkeyword exceeds a predetermined minimum strength; and in response todetermining that the stored strength of association exceeds thepredetermined minimum strength, identify search results matching thefirst keyword and the second keyword; determine that a predeterminedamount of time has elapsed since increasing the stored strength ofassociation between the first keyword and the second keyword; inresponse to determining that the predetermined amount of time haselapsed since increasing the strength of association, decrease thestored strength of association between the first keyword and the secondkeyword; receive, after the predetermined time has elapsed, a secondsearch query that comprises the first keyword; and in response toreceiving the second search query that comprises the first keyword:determine whether the stored strength of association exceeds thepredetermined minimum strength; and in response to determining that thestored strength of association does not exceed the predetermined minimumstrength, search for results matching the first keyword withoutsearching for results matching the second keyword.
 9. The system ofclaim 8, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to increasethe stored strength of association, in response to determining that therate at which the communications within the plurality of communicationsare created exceeds the predetermined rate, from a first strength thatis lower than the predetermined minimum strength to a second strengththat is greater than the predetermined minimum strength.
 10. The systemof claim 8, wherein the plurality of communications comprises one of:communications on an online social network, email messages, textmessages, Internet communications, websites, mobile applicationcommunications, and/or communications received from a third-party datasource.
 11. The system of claim 8, wherein the control circuitry isfurther configured, when determining whether the rate at which thecommunications within the plurality of communications are createdexceeds the predetermined rate, to receive, from a third party datasource, third party data indicating that the rate at which thecommunications within the plurality of communications are createdexceeds the predetermined rate.
 12. The system of claim 8, wherein thecommunications within the plurality of communications are created by aplurality of users.
 13. The system of claim 8, wherein the strength ofassociation between the first keyword and the second keyword is storedin a knowledge graph.
 14. The system of claim 8, wherein the controlcircuitry is further configured to generate for display the searchresults matching the first keyword and the second keyword in response todetermining that the stored strength of association exceeds thepredetermined minimum strength.